


Not a Zen Koan

by bessemerprocess



Series: Zennish [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Life
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-17
Updated: 2007-12-17
Packaged: 2017-10-04 13:14:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bessemerprocess/pseuds/bessemerprocess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie is in the mood to talk. Except Reese hated it when he calls off duty and Ted is off with Olivia somewhere and Charlie had no one to talk with. Instead, he goes to Reese's bar. It wasn't really her bar, she didn't own it or anything, it was just the bar she drank at before going to AA meetings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not a Zen Koan

Charlie is in the mood to talk. Except Reese hated it when he calls off duty and Ted is off with Olivia somewhere and Charlie had no one to talk with. Instead, he goes to Reese's bar. It wasn't really her bar, she didn't own it or anything, it was just the bar she drank at before going to AA meetings.

Charlie gets a ginger ale and sits down at the bar next to a man with an eye patch. He figures anyone with an eye patch has a story and maybe this man was in the mood to talk too. The man threw back a shot, and dropped the glass back on to the bar.

"Want another?" asks Charlie.

"Sure," replies the man, "I'm Xander." He sticks out his hand and they shake.

"Charlie," he says, waving down the bartender to fill up their drinks. They sit there in silence for a moment before Xander picked up his shot and drank it.

"It's good stuff," he says saluting Charlie with the glass.

"You from around here?" Charlie asks, hoping to get the man talking.

"I used to be," replies Xander, as the bartender pours him another. "I grew up in Sunnydale." When Charlie looks at him blankly, Xander continues, "It was the town that sank into the giant crater a few years ago."

Charlie sighs, not wanting to explain how he had missed the last twelve years. "I guess I didn't hear about it," is all he says.

"Gas explosion or a sinkhole or something," says Xander. "Four years ago today."

Charlie can tell Xander is holding something back, he debates asking for a moment, and then does. "Is that how you lost the eye?"

"No," says Xander, touching the elastic. "I lost my fiancee. My girlfriend. Whatever." He takes another shot.

"Life is weaker than death, and death is weaker than love," says Charlie. "We should drink to your fiancee."

Xander looks at Charlie hard, and then relaxes. "Yeah, she would've like that. Her name was Anya."

"To Anya," they say in unison, and Charlie clinks his glass against Xander's.


End file.
